boogie board

ezra got a boogie board and daddy took a half hour off from studying yesterday to show him how to use it. i was so glad to have michael there for this.

he can help him be more fearless and learn to enter the water holding onto the board - learn how to grab hold of the board and push off into the water.

there were no waves. the ocean was as still as a lake.

but, did i mention michael only took off a half hour from studying? that means about 15 minutes actually at the beach. so.... he just picked him up like this and put him in.

oh well.. we have 7 months left for him to learn to walk in by himself with his board.

they had a nice time together while i soaked up the salt water and sunshine watching them until it was my turn to take over.

ezra licked the salt water off his chin.

then we had snacks on the beach before going home

and checked out this awesome ever changing sky of ours.

ezra's castle

yesterday ezra requested we visit his castle. we've never gone back to fort louis by ourselves so this was a little adventure for the two of us. we stopped at the new hidden bakery on our way because ezra saw it on our way and called from the back seat, "i want a chocolate croissant!" so he got a pain au chocolat and i got a chocolate almond croissant that was perfect to the last bite. it may be the best one i've ever had. we drove along the colorful road past the locals hanging outside their doorsteps, some selling fruit, some selling sandals, others just watching the cars and people go by. when we got to our destination there were plenty of clouds moving overhead in the gentle breeze to keep us comfortable for a while.

ezra climbed on all of the canons and looked out at sea.

we huddled close for a self portrait which is no easy feat with my iphone. i forgot my camera and used my hipstamatic app. i like how these come out much better than the regular camera on my phone. but, they take a bit of time to develop making it more luck than anything to get a good shot of a 3 year old.

there are many rocks and old crumbly brick building remains to crawl on at the fort. there are some pretty steep drops from some of them and i had to tell ezra no a few times on his climbing attempts. i felt comfortable with having him climb up this set of rocks in his birkenstocks and i think he was happy in the end with that.

it was a gorgeous day. we had a few sprinkles while we were up there. on our way down i held my umbrella over us to give us shade from the hot sun.

on our drive down the mountain we came to a little group of cows munching on some grass. we stopped to watch them. ezra noticed their tails were swishing away the flies. he also said, "they eat grass." i love these little lessons he learns about the world around us. i am enjoying our little island's offerings for now and look forward to exploring more worlds with ezra in the future.

a bird's eye view of where we live

look in the middle in the farthest distance

on that little strip of land out at sea is our hotel

yesterday we spent the day running errands together all over the island. running errands is my least favorite activity here with the oppressive heat, potholes all over the road as well as the traffic, road construction and annoying speed bumps along the way, going to stores and almost never being able to get everything on your list making more stops on your way home to get what you set out to get. but, when we have michael with us as our driver and companion, errand running becomes a time of family togetherness that we can enjoy. it becomes a time to explore places never explored together before and just hang out together without the distractions that keep us from being fully present with each other when we are at home. i don't even notice the aforementioned nuisances nor do they bother me at all if i do.

we went to the office supply store, gas station, hardware store, health food store, key making store, grocery store, and surf shop. between the key making store and the grocery store i snapped the above shot of the bird's eye view of where we live. i had never been up this hill before, but michael had, and we stopped to enjoy the view. this is a LOT of stops even for us adults, but for any 3 year old that can be a recipe for a tumultuous meltdown. but, ezra and i share the same superhuman strengths when our michael is with us and he enjoyed the day and only made one mini barely audible cry when we made him try on the third swim vest at the surf shop. on our way home we stopped at a boulangerie that i had been to once alone. it is in an inconspicuous grey building along the side of the road with very faint signage. i never knew it was there until i smelled the fresh bread baking from where i was filling up the car at the gas station next door. so we stopped together to have some time to pause and enjoy each other in a relaxed setting. there was nobody there but us.

this is the only sign that is barely visible from the road

my treats

the setting

a buddha

ezra got so relaxed he took off his sandals the second we sat down

then he ate around his chocolate chip cookie

michael and i each had an espresso

i indulged even more and had this delicious almond tartlet - mmmmm... it was so yummy!

after a little break from all of our running around, just sitting together in the shade eating and drinking at this quiet little bakery on our way home from marigot, we felt refreshed and ready to go home and begin our evening - for michael hours of long studying and for me making dinner, playing with ezra and a long drawn out bedtime routine. it is all these things and more for which i am grateful.

this moment

a day of celebration

yesterday michael successfully completed his first block exams of his 4th semester. he has worked tirelessly since the start of the semester, getting 4 hours of sleep a night and walking around reciting new medical terms that i often mistake for the start of conversation. when blocks come around there is a lot of stress the weekend before, sending ezra and i outdoors to give michael less distractions at home. then the day of blocks we wake up in anticipation to spend the rest of the day together always in hopes of celebrating passing scores. when ezra woke up, i told him it was a special day because when daddy comes home he won't have to study and we can play together. he said, "i think i need some presents." i said, "well daddy will be your present. his presence is our present!" and then he said, "just tell daddy and he'll say yes, of course!" and of course he did. we started our day together at our favorite health food restaurant Top Carrot.

here was my view from my corner seat

michael kept checking the internet for his scores. i've learned to completely accept this and not expect him to be fully 'present' on these together days. med school is a roller coaster of stress and relief. ezra ate around his chocolate chip cookie and was quite content to just have the 3 of us together and so was i.

we had to make a stop for ezra's powdered milk at a french pharmacy. it was time to get the september issue of 'papoum' - a sweet little monthly french publication for kids that helps me and ezra learn french. we had intended to get a boogie board afterward in marigot for ezra, but the parking was scarce and it was time to get back home. so, this was his present.

when we got home it was time to plant our chia seeds in a name plant for ezra. he shot these 3 pictures of me laying the seeds down and our reflection of us on the balcony.

then our day wasn't over until i made a batch of these delicious raw peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from love veggies yoga. these are so yummy. i make them once a week and always have to eat a spoonful before i put them in the fridge. doesn't this look so delicious? you should go make some now, because they only take a few minutes to make. i am so glad i never have the need to bake cookies anymore loaded with sugar and white flour. these totally satisfy that sweet craving without being bad for you.

kite fliers

last week we had a perfect day for flying a kite. the blustery wind was creating white caps out at sea that we watched all day from our windows before we headed to the beach. i couldn't wait to get out there. on the way we picked up our friends and headed to mullet beach. when we got there ronan took the first turn flying the kite while ezra ran after him screaming, "faster, faster!" it was delightful watching the two smiling children run in large circles on the beach laughing with pure happiness.

after a long while ezra decided he wanted to take a turn flying the kite. he waited patiently while ronan wound the kite and brought it down for ezra to hold. this was one of the first times and surely the longest time that ezra had held his kite himself. he held still and watched his kite flying up above.

i love this look of concentration on his face.

i love all the looks on this face.

beautiful beach days

the last few days we have been going to the beach everyday. we went to our local mullet beach a couple of days in a row. it is five minutes away and a great way to just get out of the house for a bit. on the first of our two days, there were huge waves and a high tide that brought some fresh puddles for ezra to play in. he ran through them yelling, "splish, splash, splosh!" while ronan and dillon enjoyed being tossed by the waves crashing on the shore. when the older boys tired of the waves they came up to the puddles and skim boarded across them on their boogie boards. dillon let ezra try his out and ezra said he wanted to take it home. regrettably i forgot my camera that day and i have decided i am never going to the beach again without it - even on these short trips meant to just get out of the house for a bit.

the next day i had my camera and got a lot of great shots of ezra and ronan flying ezra's space shuttle kite. i am going to make a separate post with those shots i love them so much. here's one of me holding the kite while ezra sat in front of me watching it fly up in the beautiful blue sky.

every now and then he would scamper to the shore to watch the boys in the water.

we watched them together at a safe distance.

yesterday we went to guana bay on the other side of the island. it has a stunning view of the island st. barthelemy - aka st. bart's - which due to my damaged designated beach camera unfortunately has a dark line across it in this picture.

we went searching along the shoreline for shells and rocks of which there were plenty due to the high tide. ezra collected mostly rocks that i almost left at the beach but in the end decided to bring home. i'm glad i did because they are really beautiful and bring a different element of nature into the house other than the ubiquitous seashells. i think we may even paint on them if ezra says it's okay.

i love how i caught his shadow in this picture which was mostly an accident. it is often too bright at the beach to see well on my view screen. most shots are point, shoot, and hope for the best. this was a fun little surprise capture.

i like the wavey lines of the shoreline and horizon and the cloud patterned sky above in the picture below.

the continuous flow of low waves are great for boogie boarding at guana. dillon and ronan went straight into the water with their boards when we got there and shortly after declared it was their favorite beach.

we drove home in the rain and through a flooded golf course. when we got home our kitchen had been flooded too by the pounding rain blowing against the kitchen slider. we're up on the 8th floor of our hotel, so i guess that's what you'd call a torrential downpour. luckily michael was home studying for block exams and laid a half a dozen beach towels down to stop the flow of water coming into the apartment. we've been having quite a bit of rain since hurricane earl, but luckily it's either raining after we've been to the beach or during the night while we are sleeping. rain is good, because it helps the plants grow back and cools the island off, but rain is also bad because it creates more breeding grounds for mosquitos, including the infamous dengue variety that could give you a panic attack every time you or your child gets bit by a mosquito. another good thing about the mercurial weather of the island is that it brings awesome skies during the day and in the evenings. here are a few of those skies i grabbed my camera for.